FIFTH EDITION (Jeor^e James ifornia )nal ity 25 CE^TS I UCSB LIBRARY SCENIC MOUNT LOWE BY GEORGE WHARTON JAMES. IN AND AROUND THE GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO RIVER IN ARIZONA THIRD EDITION. 346 PAGES. CLOTH. 8VO. ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS' $2.50 NET POSTAGE 30c. EXTRA. THE INDIANS OF THE PAINTED DESERT REGION SECOND EDITION. 268 PAGES. CLOTH. 8VO SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS. $2.0O NET. POSTAGE 25c EXTRA. INDIAN BASKETRY. THIRD EDITION. OVER 4OO PAGES. UPWARDS OF 600 ILLUSTRATIONS CLOTH. 8VO. $2. SO NET. POSTAGE 25c. EXTRA HOW TO MAKE INDIAN AND OTHER BASKETS. SECOND EDITION. 140 PAGES. CLOTH. 8VO. 220 ILLUSTRATIONS. $1.00 NET. POSTAGE 1 2c. EXTRA. IN AND OUT OF THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA 450 PAGES. 135 ILLUSTRATIONS. $3 00 NET. POSTAGE 30c. EXTRA. TRAVELERS HAND BOOK TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. SECOND EDITION. CLOTH. 16MO. FOR THE POCKET. 520 PAGES. MANY ILLUSTRATIONS- $1 00. POSTAGE 1 re EXTRA. The Grandest Railway in the World SCENIC MOUNT LOWE . AND ITS . WONDERFUL RAILWAY How the Sierra Madre Mountains have been surmounted by Electric Cars, and the most Beautiful and Grand Views of Mountain, Valley and Ocean Scenery made accessible to all PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED FIFTH EDITION GEORGE WHARTON JAMES AUTHOR OF Travelers' Hand-book to Southern California In and Out of the Old Missions of California In and Around the Grand Canyon The Indians of the Painted Desert Region Indian How to make Indian and other Baskets Basketry ; Etc., Etc. 1905 PACIFIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA MOUNTAINS. Centuries old are the mountains; Their foreheads wrinkled and rifted, Helios crowns by day, Pallid, serene by night ; From their bosoms uptossed The snows are driven and drifted Like Lithonus' beard Streaming, disheveled and white. Thunder and tempest of wind in Their trumpets blow the vastness ; Phantoms of mist and rain, Cloud and the shadow of cloud, Pass and repass by the gates Of their inaccessible fastness ; Ever unmoved they stand, Solemn, eternal and proud. LONGFELLOW in "The Mask of Pandora. CONTENTS. PACK Mountains, by Longfellow 4 Man's Love for the Mountains 7 Distinguished Testimony 13 Mount Lowe Railway 21 Origin of the Mount Lowe Railway 23 Rubio Canyon 27 Great Cable Incline 29 Echo Mountain 31 Echo Mountain House 33 Lowe Observatory 35 Professor Larkin 38 The Spectroscope 43 Great World's Fair Searchlight 47 Operating Machinery of Great Cable Incline 49 Glen Canyon 51 Mount Lowe Eight 53 Phantom Sea 55 Alpine Division 57 Nature and Art 59 Magnificent Views 61 Circular Bridge 65 Alpine Club House, Hanging of the Crane 69 Benefits of Mountain Climbing 79 Health Gained in the Mountains 83 Mountain Canyon in the Winter 85 Flora of Mount Lowe 88 Coast Islands from Mount Lowe 93 Looking from Mount Lowe Over the Valley 94 From Alpine Snow to Semi-Tropical Sea 96 From the Mountains to the Sea 102 Dawn on Mount Lowe 104 Tri-Crested Summit of Mount Lowe 106 A Forest of Pines 106 The Name 107 How to See Mount Lowe no Summer on Mount Lowe 112 The Summing Up 114 The Beauties of Mount Lowe 1 15 Other Picturesque Trips on the Pacific Electric Railway 116 Long Beach 116 Whittier 119 San Gabriel 1 20 Monrovia and Baldwin's Ranch 123 THE MOUNT LOWE DIVISION PACIFIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY Man's Love for In all ages of the world man Mountains. has been a lover of mountains Rnskin says, "Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery," hence it is natural that man should love them and that they should exercise great and potent influence upon him. Carmel, Ararat, Hor, Horeb, Nebo, Sinai, Olivet, Hermon, Calvary, and others have left through the literature of the Bible ineffaceable impressions upon the highest civilizations of the world. All oriental literature abounds in refer- ences to mountains, and men were incited to lives of majesty, power, and purity by contem- plation of them. Every student of Japanese literature knows the influence Fuji Yama has had upon the desti- nies of that thoughtful nation. Life in the moun- tains of Afghanistan, Beloochistan and Northern India transformed the calm, meditative, pastoral Hindoos into active, impulsive, warlike peoples. whose movements resemble somewhat the fierce storms that play upon their mountain summits or the wild winds that whirl down their canyons. The mountain traditions of Europe would fill many large volumes, and the folk-lore of the peasantry, as to how they came by their names, makes most fascinating reading. Who is there that cannot discern what Sir Walter Scott so forcibly presents the influence upon the national character of the Scots and the Swiss exercised by the rugged, bold and snow- crowned mountains of their native lands? And the proverbial philosophy of both these peoples contains many coins with a mountain superscrip- tion. There is scarcely a poet of any age or clime whose soul since Homer made Olympus the home of the gods and Parnassus the seat of poesy, has not thankfully accepted the uplift of mountain influence. Of nearly all the true, pure, heroic souls of his- tory one could exclaim : "He made him friends of mountains," and we read with thrilling delight the thoughts inspired by mountains in Homer, Virgil, Dante, Grethe, Schiller, Moliere, Fenelon, Bourdaloue, Massillon, Wordsworth, Browning, Agassiz, Winchell, Clarence King, LeConte and others. On Sinai's rugged brow it was, amid heaven's awful thunders, God showed Himself to Moses, and. through him to mankind, in the two tables of the law. On Hor's solitary peak He conde- scended to place the priestly Aaron in his tomb. On Carmel, His servant, the dauntless Elijah called for fire, and God responded with the de- vouring element from heaven. On Ararat, above the drowned world, the family that was to re- people the earth, started after their long confine- ment in their floating home. On Pisgah, Moses stood to survey the promised land. On Hermon Christ's transfiguration took place. On Hattin He proclaimed the beatitudes. On Calvary He was crucified, and on Olivet He ascended. While the exigencies of business and com- merce have made it necessary for the ^rge ma- jority of people to dwell on level plains or on the shores of the ocean, the greatest peoples and the nations which have longest maintained their in- dependence have been those which inhabited mountainous sections, and breathed the pure air of the higher altitudes. The purest patriotism, the highest intellectual attainments, the greatest love of family, and the most perfect physical de- velopment have been found among people who were inspired by the grandeur of mountain scen- ery. The clinging faith and stern patriotism of the Hebrews were the result of their love of the mountains of Palestine ; the love of the Greeks for the mountains on which they lived gave them the intellectual and physical vigor which enabled to roll the Persian hosts the them back ; sunny mountains of Italy were an inspiration to the Romans which enabled them to rule the world, and the heroism of the Swiss in preserving their national autonomy in spite of all Europe, is the most illustrious example of what has been the history of all mountaineers. Mountains are the barriers which have preserved nations from de- struction, and national borders generally run parallel with mountain ranges. 13 Distinguished As a specimen of many such Testimony. testimonials which have been publicly given in regard to the popularity of the Mount Lowe Railway, I append herewith portions of an admirable letter written by the Hon. W. C. Patterson, late President of Los Angeles Cham- ber of Commerce, to its membership. The date is September 27, 1895. He said: "In the in- terest of my health and for the sake of most exquisite recuperation and enjoyment, I have made thus far thirty-nine visits to Echo Moun- tain, a:id several trips to the summit of Mount Lowe. I have also passed three or four times over the matchless five miles' extension which is called the 'Alpine Division,' and which extends to Mount Lowe Springs, where is situated Al- pine tavern, an altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level. "The Mount Lowe Railway, which enables one to penetrate the very heart of the Sierras with entire ease and comfort, has no counterpart in the world, either to the originality of its con- ception, the solution of what has been heretofore considered impossible engineering problems, or the indescribable picturesqueness of the ever- changing scenery through which it passes. "Any one who makes a single visit becomes full of enthusiasm, but mine has grown cumula- tive to such an extent that language seems utterly inadequate. As I have witnessed the results of Professor Lowe's great genius, enterprise, and perseverence, and have studied his personality, I am more and more impressed with the belief that he is an unique character, and one of the great men of this progressive age. Professor I,owe Addressing his Guests on the Suspended Boulder, Rubio Canyon. 15 "It is a matter of intense surprise to me, and almost disgust, that so few of our own people right here in sight of our beautiful Sierra Madre have availed themselves of the opportunities which he has opened for studying their more than Alpine beauties, their inexhaustible and in- tensely interesting geological and botanical re- sources, to say nothing of the benefits to be de- rived from the delicious mountain air, freighted as it is with sweet odors and buoyant exhilara- tion. "These mountains are not, as many suppose, barren and bare. Vegetation extends to the very summit, more than 6,000 feet above the sea level, and the flora which abounds is a surprise, both as to its beauty and variety.